


Distance Makes the Heart go "Ow"

by phoenixyfriend



Series: Blame Tumblr Prompts [24]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Child Death, Child Soldiers, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-06
Updated: 2016-12-06
Packaged: 2018-09-06 23:03:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8772913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixyfriend/pseuds/phoenixyfriend
Summary: Karin would have likely adored her soulmate, if she'd been given a few months to idealize him between him saving her life and having to actually listen to how abrasive he was.As it was, she's... only kind of impressed.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the tumblr prompt:
> 
> SasuKarin for the one where once you meet your soulmate, it’s physically uncomfortable to be apart from them for too long? Imagining that discovery amuses me more than it should...
> 
> \-------  
> I modified it to “to be apart from them by too far” and then the “too long” bit is like… you train to make it longer and farther as time goes on.
> 
> Also, I feel like it’s important to note that being exposed directly to Sasuke’s particularly prickly personality early in an acquaintanceship changes a lot of potential interactions.

They met when he saved her life, which is an auspicious meeting if there ever was one. It’s like something out of a fairy tale: the brave knight saves the clever princess who got in over her head because the people in charge of her thought they knew better.

Karin never liked fairy tales like that very much. They always annoyed her. She wanted the princess to be both clever  _and_  a good fighter.

(Karin wanted a lot of things. This, she wanted because she was tired of being like the princesses they told stories about.)

(Karin knew she was clever. There wasn’t much doubt about that, but her fighting skill left something to be desired.)

(She hated being weak.)

He smiled at her, and she found her glasses and saw him, and for a single, perfect moment, she felt okay.

Then she remembered her teammates were dead, and tried to tell herself that she’d never liked them all that much anyway. It was a lie, but not by much.

“Take care of yourself,” he said, with an offhanded wave, and moved to leave. Karin was… well, admittedly disappointed to see him go, but she could certainly understand it. The boy didn’t know her, and if she left right now and  _was_ careful, then she'd be able to make it out alive.

She couldn’t tell from here if the bear was dead. Her brain was a little too scattered to sense an animal’s health right now, so it would be safe to get away as quickly as possible. She’d be abandoning her teammate’s bodies to rot, sure, but that was fine in relation to her own safety, and that was all that really matte–

Karin’s train of thought fizzled as something horrid and awful twisted in her gut. It didn’t feel physical, but she  _knew_  it wasn’t chakra, and whatever it was, she wanted it to stop.

She realized she was clutching her chest and gasping for breath. Okay. Um. Embarrassing.

The sensation eased.

“Shit.”

Karin turned around to see the boy from before staring at her in horror. For a few moments, it didn’t compute, and then it all suddenly made sense.

He took a few steps back, and the sensation got worse, fast enough that the boy almost immediately came back to a more bearable distance.

“If this is a genjutsu…” he warned, glaring at her.

Karin shook her head rapidly.

His eyes stayed narrowed, and then Karin felt his chakra  _shift_ just as his eyes turned red.

She stayed as still as possible as he repeated the early experiment, and the feeling in her chest was only  _worse_  now that there was a twist of anxiety tossed in as well.

“ _Fuck,”_ the boy swore, running a hand through his hair. “You and me, we’re seriously– _dammit_ , this is the worst possible timing…”

Karin nodded mutely.

“I guess… those are your teammates, right?” He demanded, pointing at the corpses.

“Were,” Karin corrected, and takes a small amount of pleasure in the way he winced. He seemed much nicer before he opened up his mouth and ruined that pretty smile with words.

“Well, I have to get back to  _my_  teammates, so… we could carry them, I guess?” He made a face like he didn’t like the sound of that. “The exam doesn’t end for a few more days, though, so I’m not sure how we’d store them.”

The forest was hot. Karin could feel numbers trickling through her brain, telling her exactly how long it would be until bowels loosened and flesh began rotting and the moisture disappeared and left her teammates as withered husks.

It wouldn’t be a pretty picture, though the humidity in the air would stave off the last for a while.

“Leave them,” Karin said, voice dead and raspy, cutting through the air like a rusty knife. “I’m sure there are cameras somewhere. Someone’s bound to have noticed the dead genin.”

He gave her a surprised look.

“The officials will be able to store the bodies more efficiently than either of us,” Karin explained. “Better to just… leave it to them.”

“O…kay,” He said after a moment. “Come with me, then.”

Karin wanted to yell at him to not order her around, but her head was still spinning and her glasses were smudged and this boy had saved her life, so maybe she could give him a bit of a pass.

“Don’t give me orders,” she said as calmly as she could manage instead. “You’re my soulmate, not my boss.”

He made a face again. “I was just–”

“No orders,” she cut him off. “And we’re good.”

He stared at her for a moment, and then made a scoffing noise.

“Fine, whatever. I’m leaving anyway.”

Karin considered the fact that it would be easier for her to sit through the awful sensation than it would be for him to keep moving away while it snarled through him, but it was ultimately less complicated to just go along with it. She dusted herself off as best she could, gave her teammates one last look and a farewell gesture, and then jogged to catch up with her soulmate (uh,  _weird_ ) before he got so far away that the awful feeling started up again.

 _Hmph,_  she thought, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye as she managed to catch up with him. She had to turn her head a little for her glasses to actually help her see him.

“So, soulmate,” she said, ignoring the strangled little noise he made at that. “What’s your name?”

“...Uchiha Sasuke. Isn’t it normally polite to give your own name first?”

“Hmph.” Karin crossed her arms and flipped her hair, hiding her own desperate need to consider whether her family name was worth giving out or not. She’d probably be asked to stay in Konoha if she really was Sasuke’s soulmate. Was it worth giving up Grass? Probably. She definitely couldn’t tell anyone her name back home or they’d try to get her to use her special abilities even  _more_ , or send her to a breeding program,  _ugh_. But Konoha had... well, her mom used to say that Konoha had been a friend to Uzushio, even if they’d never made it in time to stop Uzushio’s destruction.

(Karin had heard stories of how fast it had all gone down. She doubted anyone had even managed to get a message out to Konoha, let alone gotten it there in time to get significant back up out to their sister village. They probably hadn’t heard about the destruction until either refugees from the village or rumors from the coast towns of the sea burning red with blood wound their way to Konoha.)

“Hello?” Sasuke was standing in front of her. Oh. That was unexpected.

“I was lost in thought,” she defended. Was it safe to tell Konoha?

“I’m still waiting,” he said, cocking one hip and resting a hand on it.

“...Uzumaki Karin,” she finally said. She poked a finger at his face, as aggressive as she could manage. “But don’t go spreading that first part around, alright? I’m sure your village already guessed based on the hair, and is probably going to test it somehow, but I don’t need to deal with Kumo hounding me like they did the princess twenty-five years ago when she was living in Konoha.”

Sasuke mouthed the word  _princess_ , looking disturbed. He then followed with, “Your family name is  _Uzumaki?”_

“Yeah, like Uzushio’s main clan, if they even teach that anymore,” she said, staring at him as mulishly as she could manage. “So, you planning on telling?”

“I have a teammate,” he said, seemingly apropos of nothing. Karin waited for him to continue. Sasuke struggled with words for a moment. “His name is Uzumaki, too.”

Karin’s first thought was that that as a lot of effort for a single, simple sentence.

Her second thought body-slammed her first thought out of the way, and she had to consciously keep herself from yelling. It would come out as a screech at this age. Nonetheless, she was still pretty damn loud.

“ _What?”_


End file.
